Hope Solo Claims Maksim Chmerkovskiy Slapped Her on Dancing With the Stars

In her new memoir, the gold-medal-winning Olympian claims that Maksim Chmerkovskiy, her former partner on Dancing With the Stars, was forcibly rough with her during their rehearsals for the show last year, and that at one point he supposedly slapped her across the face.

"I thought that was just how it went—how dancers worked with each other. But it kept getting worse. One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day."

She also alleges that during their rehearsal for the show's Halloween episode, "he wanted my head in a specific position. To achieve that, he slapped me across the face. Hard."

The two were partnered up for season 13 of the hit ABC show and made it all the way to the top three. Solo claims that the network subsequently offered to pair her with another dancer but that she declined because she "didn't want to end Maks' career."

Neither Chmerkovskiy nor ABC has responded to requests for comment. Producer BBC America had no comment.

Chmerkovskiy had been a vocal supporter of Solo's during the Olympics, tweeting, "Congrats @HopeSolo and the entire #USWNT for three-peating the Olympic gold!!! Smiling as if I had something to do with it :)) #Proud."

Yesterday, however, he struck a completely different chord, writing, "Always hated hypocrites and liars...but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can't win at someone's expense."

He followed that up on Friday with this: "Life's best lessons are the ones that you smile through.....while they hurt you the most! I'm bullet proof....FIRE AWAY!"